Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
In general, a given region may include a number of different access networks arranged to provide communication devices with access to engage in packet-data communication on a transport network such as the Internet. These access networks may be arranged to serve communication devices over wired or wireless interfaces and may take any of a variety of forms. In practice, for instance, each such access network may include one or more access nodes with which communication devices can directly communicate and may further include or connect with other supporting infrastructure such as routers, switches, and gateways that provide packet-data network connectivity. When a communication device connects with an access node of such an access network, the access node or the supporting infrastructure may then assign an Internet Protocol (IP) address to the communication device, or the communication device may have a previously assigned IP address. The communication device may then use its IP address to engage in packet-data communication via the access network with various remote entities, such as other communication devices or network servers for instance.
At times, it may be desirable for a communication device to transition from being served by one such access network to being served by another such access network. This may occur, for instance, as the device moves from an area where just one access network provides service to an area where another access network also provides service, and/or in view of various considerations, such as application requirements, cost of service, quality of service, network load, and the like. In practice, when a device engages in such a transition, the device may disconnect from its serving access network and newly connect with the other access network. The device may thus stop being served by one access network and proceed to be served by the other access network.